Hamas just released 20 live hostages under the ceasefire agreement. Here

Their faces stare out from every corner of Israel on billboards now faded and torn by the sun. Their stories, told by distraught relatives, are almost as well-known as celebrities. They are civilians and soldiers, fathers and sons. Some were at the Nova music festival, where nearly 400 people were murdered and dozens kidnapped.

On Monday, Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel and many other nations, freed 20 hostages into the custody of the Red Cross, which then took them to Israel as part of a new ceasefire agreement that many hope will mark the end of two years of war in the devastated Gaza Strip. Under the agreement, all living hostages would be released, as well as the bodies of the deceased.

Also on Monday, the deaths of two hostages previously believed to be alive were confirmed.

The war was triggered by the Hamas-led group. October 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israelwhen some 1,200 people were murdered and 251 kidnapped.

The fighting has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and fighters but says about half of the deaths were women and children, and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of about 2 million. The United Nations and many independent experts consider the ministry’s figures to be the most reliable estimate of war casualties in Gaza.

Before Monday’s release, there were 48 hostages held in Gaza, including the body of a soldier from a previous war. Israel had determined that at least 25 of the hostages were killed on October 7, 2023 or died while in captivity. Just before the release of the first hostages under the ceasefire, Hamas informed Israel that two more hostages were no longer alive, Tamir Nimrodi and Bipin Joshi. Israel had previously expressed “serious concern” about his status.

Only one hostage remains, who Israel believes was killed in captivity.

Under the ceasefire agreement that came into effect last Friday, the remaining hostages were to be released within 72 hours. In exchange, Israel freed about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 250 people serving life sentences for attacks on Israelis, plus 1,700 captured in Gaza during the war and held without charge.

President Trump met with some of the hostage families in the Knesset before addressing Israeli lawmakers on Monday, the Missing Families and Hostages Forum said.

Here’s a look at the 20 hostages freed on Monday:

Gali Berman and Ziv Berman, 28 years old.

The twins were taken from their homes in the Kfar Aza kibbutz, on the Gaza border, during the October 7 attack. Seventeen others were also kidnapped at Kfar Aza, but the Berman twins were the only kibbutz hostages who remained in captivity. The family had heard from the returned hostages in an earlier deal that, in February, the brothers were alive but detained separately. Liran Berman, their older brother, said it’s the longest the two have spent apart. In Kfar Aza, the twins lived in apartments facing each other. Gali is more outgoing, while Ziv is more reserved and shy with a sharp sense of humor, her brother said.

Omri Miran, 48 years old.

Omri Miran was kidnapped from the Nahal Oz kibbutz. During the attack, terrorists took his family, including his two daughters, ages 2 and 6 months, hostage in the kitchen of a neighbor’s house and then broadcast it on Facebook Live. Miran and the father of the other family, Tsachi Idan, were kidnapped. Idan’s body was released during the final hostage exchange after he was killed in captivity. Lishay Miran Lavi, Miran’s wife, said her youngest daughter knew “Daddy Omri” only through photos and videos, and that she didn’t really understand what a father is. Moshe Lavi, Miran’s brother who lives in New York City, told News themezone New York that Miran’s sister and two young nieces survived the physical and mental torture of October 7, but watched as Miran was taken to Gaza.

They kill anger, 22

Matan Angrest, an Israeli soldier, was pulled from his military tank in southern Israel. He is the eldest of four brothers from Kiryat Bialik, on the outskirts of Haifa. His family has been among the loudest protesters and highly critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Last Tuesday, two years after the October 7 attack, his mother, Anat Angrest, addressed her son at a rally. “I know you’re hurting and I can’t hold you. I hear you whisper, ‘Come for me, Mom,’ and I can’t protect you,” she said.

Eitan Mor, 25 years old

Eitan Mor worked as a security guard at the Nova music festival, where he helped evacuate people injured in the attack. Mor’s parents helped found the Tikva Forum, a loosely organized group of hostage families. They advocated military pressure, not an immediate ceasefire or a hostage release deal, as the best chance to bring the hostages home. That stance has put Mor’s father at odds with many of the other hostage families. The Israeli army released a photo on Monday that shows Eitan Mor smiling while hugging his parents.

Alon Ohel, 24 years old

Alon Ohel, who also has German and Serbian citizenship, was kidnapped at the Nova music festival from a mobile air raid shelter along with Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli who was killed in captivity in August 2024. His family, a talented pianist, has placed pianos throughout Israel and in various locations around the world to raise awareness about their plight. Three other hostages who had been held with Ohel for more than a year were freed during the previous ceasefire, including Eli Sharabi, who said Ohel was like his adopted son. Sharabi said they were kept chained for the entire period of their captivity and subsisted on one moldy pita bread a day. Ohel has shrapnel in his eye after the bomb shelter attack and his family fears he may be partially blind. Eli Sharabi, a hostage who had previously been released, told “News Sunday Morning” Last month he became a father figure to Ohel during their year together, and when Sharabi found out he was being released, Ohel wasn’t on the list. “You imagine this moment hundreds of times,” Sharabi said. “And you think it’s going to be the happiest moment ever. And thanks to Alon, this moment became very complicated. He had a little panic attack. He started crying and shaking. So, we drank water, washed his face and hugged him. It wasn’t easy.”

Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24 years old

Guy Gilboa-Dalal was among those kidnapped at the Nova music festival, while his brother Gal managed to escape. Last year, Guy appeared in two videos published by Hamas. In one video, he appears with his childhood friend, Evyatar David, with terrorists filming them in a van begging for their freedom and watching how they free their fellow hostages near the Red Cross. “The hardest thing for me is that I really went there to take care of him, take care of my little brother, and I came back without him.” Gal Dalal told News themezone In May.

Elkana Bohbot, 36 years old.

Elkana Bohbot was kidnapped at the Nova music festival. Last year, Hamas released multiple videos of Bohbot, filmed under duress, including one in which he has a fake phone conversation with his wife, Rivka; his son, Reem; his mother and brother, begging them to help him leave Gaza. His son made binoculars in kindergarten that he often used to go out to “look for his father,” according to Bohbot’s mother, Ruhama.

Rom Braslavski, 21 years old

Rom Braslavski worked as a security guard at the Nova festival. He tried to help festival-goers evacuate and was injured in both hands before being kidnapped, witnesses said. In August, the Islamic Jihad militant group posted a video of a skeletal Braslavski sobbing and pleading for his life, adding that injuries to his foot prevent him from standing. Later videos of Braslavski and fellow hostage Evyatar David digging their own graves horrified Israelis, prompting one of the largest attendances in months at the weekly protests. His father, Ofir, said that Rom is usually a strong and carefree child, and in that video it is the first time he has seen his son cry.

Nimrod Cohen, 21 years old

Nimrod Cohen was pulled from a tank where he was stationed as a soldier in southern Israel. Cohen is obsessed with Rubik’s cubes, his family said, and a burned Rubik’s cube was found in the tank from which he was abducted. This year, his mother, Viki Cohen, illustrated a Passover haggadah, the text that describes the rituals and history recited during the Passover holiday, in honor of the hostages, in part because her family stopped celebrating the holiday after the attack. “We don’t get together as a family because it reminds us how much each other is missed,” Cohen said. The only time extended family would get together is at protests, he said. “The best thing about my son is that he’s my son,” said his father, Yehuda Cohen. told News themezone last week. “He’s a normal kid like any other kid. To me, he’s special like his brother or sister. We’re a normal family. We’re a warm, normal family, and we want to be a warm, normal family again.”

Ariel Cunio, 28

Ariel, the youngest of four Cunio brothers, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz about a mile from Gaza with his girlfriend, Arbel Yehoud, and her brother, Dolev, a married father of four who was later killed in captivity. According to media reports, Cunio and Yehoud had returned from a long trip to South America weeks before the attack and had just adopted a puppy. Yehoud was released during the January ceasefire.

David Cunio, 35 years old.

David Cunio, brother of Ariel Cunio, was kidnapped with his wife, Sharon, and their 3-year-old twins at Kibbutz Nir Oz. Sharon’s sister, Danielle, and her five-year-old daughter, who were visiting, were also kidnapped. All were released in November, except David Cunio. In July, Sharon shared a photo of the twins celebrating their fifth birthday, their second without their father, and wrote on Facebook that the girls had changed so much while he was in captivity that they “are not the same girls I knew.”

Avoid David, 24 years old

Evyatar David was taken hostage at the Nova music festival along with his childhood friend, Guy Gilboa-Dalal. In August, Hamas released a video of David, emaciated and pale, saying he was digging his own grave. The condition of the hostages in the videos horrified Israelis and led tens of thousands of protesters to take to the streets and demand a ceasefire deal, in one of the largest turnouts at the weekly anti-hostage protests in months.

Maksym Harkin, 37 years old

Maksym Harkin was kidnapped at Nova, which was the first festival he had attended, according to his family. Harkin was born in Ukraine and moved to Israel with his family, where he lived in the city of Tirat HaCarmel in the north. He has a 3-year-old daughter and was the main breadwinner for his mother and brother. 11 years old. Just before he was taken away, his mother said she sent him one last text message that said, “I love you.” In July, Hamas released a video of him filmed under duress several months earlier.

Ethan Horn, 38 years old

Ethan Cuernooriginally from the city of Kfar Saba, was visiting his brother Iair at Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7. They were both kidnapped. For most of the war, the two were held with three other hostages in a dirty underground cell. In early February, terrorists filmed the emotional interaction between the brothers when they were told that Iair would be released and Eitan would stay in Gaza. Since his release, Iair Horn has campaigned for his brother and the other hostages, frequently flying to the United States and meeting politicians.

Segev Calfón, 27 years old.

Segev Kalfon was kidnapped at the Nova music festival, where he was last seen trying to flee from terrorists along the road. Before the attack, he worked at his family’s bakery in Dimona, southern Israel. Kalfon, the middle child of three siblings, had recently been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, a condition his family has highlighted in urging his release. Kalfon’s family received a sign of life from him after the last ceasefire, when some of the hostages said they were held with him for months. Kalfon’s family has focused on religious rituals in their fight for his release, including traveling to the graves of prominent rabbis and dedicating a Torah scroll in their honor.

Bar Kupershtein, 23

Bar Kupershtein was working as a security guard at the Nova festival when he was kidnapped. Witnesses said Kupershtein stayed at the festival to try to provide first aid to people who had been wounded by gunfire. Kupershtein was the main breadwinner for his family after his father was seriously injured in an accident several years ago, his aunt, Ora Rubinstein, told reporters. He said his father worked with a physical therapist to regain his ability to speak so he could meet with politicians to advocate for his son’s release. He has told the family that he would walk again when his son returned home, he said.

Yosef-Jaim Ohana, 25 years old

Yosef-Chaim Ohana was kidnapped at the Nova music festival, where he worked as a bartender. Witnesses saw him trying to help others escape before being kidnapped. He is the eldest of three brothers, one of whom died of illness about 15 years ago.

Avinatán O, 32

Avinatan Or was kidnapped at the Nova music festival along with his girlfriend, Nor an army, who was rescued by Israeli forces in June 2024. On October 7, Hamas published a video of the couple that has become one of the most well-known videos of that day. It showed Argamani on an all-terrain vehicle yelling, “Don’t kill me!” and extending her arms towards Or, who the terrorists are leading away from her. Or worked in technology in Tel Aviv before his kidnapping.

The women of the Resurrection

Matan Zangauker was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his girlfriend, Ilana Gritzewsky. The two met while working on a medical cannabis farm there. Gritzewsky was released after 55 days and has since tirelessly advocated for his release, using a Zangauker hat he rescued from his burned home. His mother, Einav, has been a constant presence at the protests, giving impassioned speeches and even being hoisted in a cage above the crowd to draw attention to the plight of the hostages. Zangauker, who said she was previously a supporter of Netanyahu, has become one of his harshest critics.

They determine the death of two hostages on Monday

Bipin Joshi, 24 years old

Bipin Joshi arrived in Israel from his native Nepal a month before the attack. He was the only non-Israeli hostage believed to be alive in Gaza. He came to Israel on a student exchange to work and study agriculture at Kibbutz Alumim on the border with Gaza. Ten of the 17 Nepalese students in the program died during the attack. Joshi, who was able to throw several live grenades from the bomb shelter where they were hiding, was injured and kidnapped. Joshi’s sister, Pushpa Joshi, 17, regularly travels eight hours by bus one way to Kathmandu from her home in western Nepal to lobby for her brother’s release. In August, his family traveled to Israel to meet with President Isaac Herzog and join families demonstrating in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square. Last week, Joshi’s family released footage of him in captivity filmed under duress around November 2023.

Tamir Nimrod, 20 years old

Tamir Nimrodi was detained at Erez, a crossing on Gaza’s northern border that had been the main route for people entering and leaving the territory. He had been serving in the Israeli defense agency that oversaw humanitarian aid in Gaza. Nimrodi was taken along with two other soldiers by terrorists who accompanied them to the Gaza gate and forced them to cross. Israel confirmed the death of the two soldiers who were taken with Nimrodi. Nimrodi had shown no signs of life in the two years since he was seen on footage walking towards Gaza in shorts and a T-shirt without glasses. Herut Nimrodi, his mother, said she didn’t know what was worse: thinking he had been killed in captivity or that he was alive but held in terrible conditions. “It scares me to even imagine it,” he said.

In:

• Hamas
• Israel
• Loop